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Saadat Hassan Manto

Saadat Hassan Manto was a British Indian-born Pakistani short story writer of the Urdu language. He is best known for his short stories, "Bu" (Odor), "Khol Do" (Open It), "Thanda Gosht" (Cold Meat), and "Toba Tek Singh". He is best known for his literature work. It will not be wrong to say that he had a sort of magic in his pen that made people not only addicted to his piece of writing but also believed his words and used to change and mold their lives on believing his writings. He improved many people and their lifestyle by reforming them through implementing the moral values through his informative books and novels.

Manto was one the most precious gems, Pakistan ever had. He is still counted as a treasure when counting the talents the Pakistani nation has seen. Manto was also a film and radio scriptwriter and a journalist. He published twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, and two collections of personal sketches. Saadat Hasan Manto is often compared with D. H. Lawrence, and like Lawrence he also wrote about the topics considered social taboos in Indo-Pakistani Society. His concerns on the socio-political issues, from local to global level are revealed in his series, Letters to Uncle Sam, and those to Pandit Nehru. On his writing he often commented,

"If you find my stories dirty, the society you are living in is dirty. With my stories, I only expose the truth".
Saadat Hassan Manto was born in Paproudi village of Samrala, in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab in a Kashmiri Muslim family of barristers on 11 May 1912. His niece is the Pakistani historian Ayesha Jalal.

He started his school in Muslim High School in Amritsar but could not fit into the school and studies and failed twice to matriculate. He only used to spend the time those days on treading English and Urdu novels. He could not put any of his attention to anywhere but literature. He was too passionate to read that he once stole an English novel from a book stall in railway station.

He spent most of his life in subcontinent supporting Muslims and educating them through his books. After the separation of Pakistan, he migrated to Pakistan and settled here. The substandard alcohol that he consumed destroyed his liver and in the winter of 1955 he fell victim to liver cirrhosis. He was 42 years old at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife Safiyah and three daughters